Ideas for homebrew religious customs

[Springheel]

I'm fleshing out some religions in my homebrew campaign world, and I'm short on creative ideas for religious practices. I'm looking for things that would help add some flavour to a religious sect, like creative rituals for purifying food, pilgrimages, unusual restrictions or body modifications, etc. Anyone have interesting ideas to share?

 

[D1Tremere]

When creating religions I suggest starting with an anthropological approach such as looking at the origins of a society. It is important that you, as the DM,know the interconnected nature of the religion, culture, environment, even if the NPCs themselves may not know any longer. This allows you to build a richer social religious culture, and provides lore for PCs to uncover.

For example, a small scale society that developed along the beech of a salt water ocean may forge a relationship with the sea, feeding exclusively on Ocean based sources while making inland fair taboo. They may revere a near by society of Tritons, appointing half Trions as their high priest cast. Their rituals are held in an underwater cavern that can only be reached by those who can hold their breath for an exceptional time, and there they ingest a weakened poison from a sea snail that induces visions of the ocean's will.
Perhaps a splinter group broke off long ago, and settled not far away. They venerate the predatory spirit of Sahuagins, and hunt inland humanoids for food/sport. They practice a ritual body modification that involves inserting sea shell slivers into their ear lobes to represent their ability to always hear the sea's will. Etc.

If developing a larger scale society be sure to focus more on abstract and social aspects of the state itself. Perhaps the structure of the state, and by extension the abstract and social aspects, stem from their earlier cultural roots. For example, the small scale society in the previous example evolved into a large city state that focuses on aquatic agriculture and uses a rare type of coral as a currency. They have a strong conservative culture that focuses of defense due to their aggressive neighbors. They are cast based, with services to the sea god being led by half Triton clergy, and Triton descent as the basis of a monarchy Etc.

 

[Voort]

For body modifications, how about a culture that associates each step toward adulthood with certain ritual scarring or tattoos. Outsiders without them might be treated as children, regardless of their age.

 

[Draegn]

In my game world a faction serving a death deity are also the assassins guild. While most people who enter and pray or use a confessional ask for their or for a loved one's passing to be quick, there are sometimes angry people who pray for someone to die. These people are told that if the person were to die that the death deity would require a sacrifice of coin or goods depending on the whim of the deity. The priest would let the person know the price and warn that the death deity is full of wrath for those who do not pay.

 

[epithet]

Hanging laundry out to dry in the sun, or putting baked goods on the windowsill to cool in the sunlight, might have devotional connotations for a sun worshiping society.
A society that venerates the sky might collect rainwater for ritual cleansing.
Perhaps it is sacrilege to wear shoes on soil or stone hallowed to the earth goddess.
When an animal is slaughtered, its blood is collected in blue-glazed earthenware jars and poured into the river as a sacrifice to the crocodile god, or the flood goddess, or the Great Mosquito.

 

[Li Shenron]

I'm fleshing out some religions in my homebrew campaign world, and I'm short on creative ideas for religious practices. I'm looking for things that would help add some flavour to a religious sect, like creative rituals for purifying food, pilgrimages, unusual restrictions or body modifications, etc. Anyone have interesting ideas to share?

Well it strongly depends of what religions! Choose one to start with, and post the generality of its deity (I am assuming you follow the typical polytheistic approach of D&D fantasy settings), at least its core idea "God(dess) of...", the associated domains, and its alignment.

 

[Bitbrain]

I'm fleshing out some religions in my homebrew campaign world, and I'm short on creative ideas for religious practices. I'm looking for things that would help add some flavour to a religious sect, like creative rituals for purifying food, pilgrimages, unusual restrictions or body modifications, etc. Anyone have interesting ideas to share?

I have a bunch of odd religious sects in my home setting, and that's before you even consider the yuan-ti serpent cults:

PILGRIMAGES
Worshippers of the "Red Thunder" make a journey to the ruined City of Copper at least once in their life. This now-desolate city was built around an impact crater, in the center of which is a 35' radius circle of pure copper.
The great prophets of this faith are known to stand on this circle of copper during thunderstorms, receiving visions whenever the exposed metal is struck by lightning.

There is a tribe of elves that try to bury every single one of their dead in a vast cave system known only to themselves. They believe that the spirits of the dead buried in this cave (and only those buried here) pass into the Feywild.
Should one of their number die and the body not be buried in this particular cave, this tribe believes that the soul of that unfortunate elf will be condemned to wander the earth forever as a banshee.


PURIFYING FOOD
There are entire tribes of cannibalistic "Sand-Reavers" that refuse to cook their food. It has something to do their insane belief that the world is a paradise. A supposed Garden of Eden which they were never driven out of.

Followers of the Church of the Divine Lucre (taken from this one really obnoxious temple in Exile 3: Ruined World that worships wealth) purify their food by sprinkling a minuscule quantity of gold dust onto each and every meal they consume.


UNUSUAL RESTRICTIONS
Only one tribe of halflings is allowed to wear clothes. It has something to do with the Son Spirit heroically putting out the blue flames of the Spellplague, forever blemishing his skin and the population of this halfling tribe along with it.
Edit: there are six deities in my halfling pantheon. The Sister/Mother Spirit and her children the Son and Daughter Spirits, and the Brother/Father Spirit and his children the Nephew and Niece Spirits.

BODY MODIFICATIONS
The "Face-Burners" smear this alchemical gel over the faces of those who convert to their religion. This gel then turns the skin around the face transparent. Individuals born into this faith are exempt from this practice.

The priests of the Church of the Divine Lucre weave strands of golden wire into their skin, and precious gemstones into their hair.

Priests of the Druidic faith will cut a length of vine and insert it into their navel at the start of religious ceremonies, not removing it until the ceremony is finished. The length of vine is meant to symbolize a fetus' umbilical cord.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Read History books about pre-Islamic religions (Sumerian, Babylonians, etc) and some wiki of Conan.

 

[aco175]

In the movie The 12th Warrior the vikings were getting ready to eat and passed around a washing bowl. All the vikings took turns washing their hands and face while some blew their nose in or washed their armpits. It finally came to Antonio Bandaras who was a more cultured Muslim soldier who was totally disgusted by the whole ritual. Not so much religious, but cultural.

You could use certain colors, like how nobody wore purple except royals since it was the most difficult to make. Things like black for funerals or white before Memorial Day all mean something, but may have changed over time.

 

[77IM]

Blades in the Dark has a really interesting "cult practices" table, and there are similar tables/generators on-line that could help. Here's a decent-looking one that just came up from googling: https://www.reddit.com/r/DnD/comments/89km68/god_complex_random_fantasy_religion_generator/

Some of my own ideas:
- A cult of assassins who worship the god of death, who are forbidden from taking life UNLESS someone else asks them to do it.
- A religion of a fire-god who believes that the color orange is divine and forbid its use on anything except holy symbols.
- Followers of a moon goddess who believe each phase of the moon favors certain activities and attitudes.
- A highly lawful church whose members are forbidden from making promises that are not in writing.
- Worshipers of math and geometry who regard interesting shapes as auspicious.
- A god of both life and death, whose clergy function as both doctors and executioners.
- A culture whose dominant god has declared a particular flowering vine as a sacred plant; in their towns and neighborhoods, that grows everywhere.
- Bathing. For whatever reason, a particular god demands their followers bathe on a strict schedule (or NOT bathe for extended periods).
- Every 7 years, members of this religion gain a new name. They always introduce themselves by their most recent name, and you can tell how old they are by the length of their full name.
- Communities of this sect are forbidden from exceeding 144 adults in size; a community that grows larger than that must send some of its members elsewhere, or establish a new settlement.
- The church of a prosperity god functions as a bank; churches are gaudy, heavily fortified, and provide micro-loans to members.
- Children and converts are sent to be judged by [ pixies | unicorns | druids | blink dogs | celestials | giant eagles | a gold dragon ] and are not full members of the religion until they are deemed worthy.
- An order that forbids members from owning more than they can carry, so members invest in superior backpack technology and wear a lot of heirloom jewelry.
- Secret graffiti: followers are encouraged to put their god's symbol or mark in all kinds of weird, hidden places, where it will turn up later.